AN EXTRA £6 million will be spent by Fife Council on fixing potholes, pulling up weeds, tackling fly-tipping, improving drainage and demolishing buildings.

Councillors approved a motion outlining the one-off investment, including money for tourism, seasonal workers, employability skills, playparks, sports pavilions and the contact centre, which will use "unallocated COVID funding" to address problems now.

Spread across 2021-23, it will see £4.26m spent this year and £1.96m next year.

Council co-leader, SNP councillor David Alexander, described it as a "bold move" and said: "This additional investment will make a difference in Fife, without a shadow of a doubt, and we're not asking anyone to pay more to achieve it.

"We're making recovery a reality and people will see the difference."

The motion put forward by the joint administration adds £2m for patching works and £1m for potholes, £800,000 to improve road drainage at flood locations, £100,000 to extend seasonal worker contracts to December – they normally run April to October – to tackle the weeds "legacy" and £300,000 to bring forward the demolition of buildings, which will free up land for development.

There's also £50,000 to combat 'environmental vandalism', or fly-tipping, £100,000 to support local tourist associations, £300,000 to help address skilled worker vacancies, £400,000 for private sector adaptations, £300,000 to help the contact centre speed up the processing of crisis and community care grants, £360,000 for improving playparks and £500,000 to refurbish sports pavilions.

Co-leader, Labour councillor David Ross, said: "I think it is absolutely right that we should agree to make at least some short-term investment to deal with the immediate issues we have.

"We've been in discussion with the services, it's not just a matter of throwing money at it. They have to have capacity to deliver and we have assurances from our services that they can deliver this level of investment within the timescales."

The policy and co-ordination committee was told the council had "unusually high" reserves – apart from money earmarked for COVID they have £48m – and the co-leaders argued for some of the money to be used now.

Cllr Alexander said: "We're still trying to catch up on work that couldn't be carried out due to COVID and it's a big problem we've got.

"Our balances are OK but we still need to be prudent as there are a lot of moving parts going forward and we have no idea what the settlements from both governments are likely to be in the near future.

"But we do have space to increase investment in areas where we are under pressure and frankly we need to do it.

"That includes helping people that need adaptations, people who require welfare fund grants, extending the contracts of the summer casuals to combat the weeds and allowing these guys more income.

"It means filling vacancies in areas where we're struggling to recruit, it means increased planned action on roads, attacking potholes and flood prevention works."

He added: "If we need to go further we can but let's see how we get on with this."

Lib Dem councillor Tim Brett said opposition councillors had only "25 minutes notice" of the motion and he was reluctant to wave through £6m of funding without getting greater detail on the proposals.

However, he also said he didn't want to hold up the spending plans and the motion was carried.